a message from the Acting Head of Mission Pia Stjernvall

The start of 2015 signals the next chapter in EUPOL's work in supporting sustainable transition by working with Afghan institutions and colleagues at the strategic level. This represents the EU's continuing support for Afghanistan, with our mission mandate now extended until the end of 2016. This also means that we can now move forward in achieving our revised goals to support policing and the justice sector at the highest levels, through highly specialist expertise and advice.

As I begin my time as the Acting Head of Mission, I would firstly like to thank Karl Ake Roghe for his tireless commitment and professionalism during his time as the Head of Mission. I know we are all missing him at EUPOL as are his many friends and colleagues, both Afghan and International.

Next I wanted to say how proud we all are of the Afghan National Security Forces who have now fully taken the lead in terms of security across Afghanistan at the start of 2015. This demonstrates real progress and whilst many challenges remain, we must stand with them as they continue their growth and development.

Everyone at EUPOL is excited and enthusiastic about this next chapter in our time here and we are now fully ready to commit all of our resources to support institutional reform for the direct benefit of the Afghan people.

Over the coming weeks we will inform you more about the specific nature of our mandate and exactly how we will be supporting sustainable transition. For now be aware that during 2015/16 EUPOL Afghanistan will focus its activities on three lines of operation, which are:

1) Institutional reform of the Ministry of 
Interior (MoI)

2) Professionalisation of the Afghan 
National Police (ANP)

3) Connecting police to justice reform

I therefore ask that you 'like' and 'share' this post to ensure that as many people as possible get to learn about EUPOL's role and our achievements.